Transcript

Chair. Good morning to you all. Before the formal business of the meeting starts, I would like to remind members that it is important that you stay in your allocated seat as this meeting is being webcast live. Now, unfortunately, I have to start my very last meeting with some very sad news. It is with great sadness that I mention the deaths of former county councillors, Nigel Knowles and Derek Proger. And after prayers, we will be holding a minute's silence. But can I now ask for tributes to Nigel Knowles? And I believe I'm going to Councillor Richard Oudel to say a few words on behalf of the Labour group. Richard. Yes, thank you, Chair. I wish to pay my own personal tribute to Nigel Knowles. He was a devoted husband to Jenny, father to Natasha and Kieran. Nigel was a well-respected and active campaigner for the local community. Since 1989, he served as a Labour councillor here on Worcestershire County Council, Royal Forest District Council, Yuleley Town Council and Kidderminster Town Council. He was a volunteer at Kidderminster Hospital for over 20 years and was a well-known poppy seller for the Royal British Legion. He also served as a school governor. Nigel had held several positions as a councillor, including chairman of Wire Forest Council, Mayor of Kidderminster and chairman of Worcestershire County Council. He was also a prolific writer and publisher of over 30 books, plays and poetry. But, Chair, I knew him best as a friend. Someone in turn very recently would phone me up in the dark hours of the evening to ask how I was and to compare notes on politics nationally and locally. Nigel contested every general election between 1979 and 2015, never winning. But he always was keen to fly the Labour flag in areas where he knew he would lose, but often laying the important groundwork for future Labour victories. He famously, when he was a Labour candidate in Bodmin in 1979, refused to shake the hands of the then Foreign Secretary, Dr David Owen. Something which he was later congratulated for. An incident which made national news at the time. He was a man of principle who resigned as chair of the Fire and Public Protection Committee, rather than forced through damaging cuts, which he thought would certainly damage the service. He often infuriated his comrades in the Labour Party. We all have stories to tell about him, but at the end of the day, he was loyal to the Labour movement, which gave him and many others so much opportunity. I will miss him deeply. The world is not complete without Nigel, and I will miss his wicked sense of humour and his passionate values and principles. Chair, with your permission, I would also like to mention Derek Podger, who represented the neighbouring division to mine. Councillor Oudel, actually, I'll call you back afterwards, if we could just do Councillor Knowles first, because they're entitled to their specific time. But I will come back to you, thank you. Right, further tributes. I believe I've got Councillor Hart from the Conservative Party. Thank you very much indeed, Madam Chairman. Yes, Councillor Oudel has said much of what I would have said, and I'm sure he knew him far better than I. But I do rise on behalf of the Conservative group on Worcestershire, because I did get to know Nigel quite well. Because, of course, as well as serving for just four years, he was on the County Council at the same time as I, from 2005 to 2009, albeit Nigel had served for 12 years previously. He served on Wyre Forest District Council for many, many years, and as Councillor Oudel said, was Chairman of the Council. And I think it's fair to say that politically and ideologically, I agreed on very little, if indeed anything, that Councillor Knowles did. But I always very much respected his contribution to public life, to the residents and businesses of this district here, where he represented locally in Wyre Forest. He was a true stalwart of the Labour Party, a true socialist and a true union man. And that clearly came through in his contributions and in debates, both here in Wyre Forest and indeed at County Hall. And Kidderminster, once upon a time, was a carpet town, and Nigel was employed in the carpet industry. And he was always at everything, he turned up to everything, and his contribution, both district and county life, was very, very valuable. And most sincerely, on behalf of those who knew him in the Conservative group, and indeed, I'm sure those who didn't will miss him. And we send our warmest tributes to Nigel's wife, Jenny, and his wider extended family. Thank you, Councillor Hart. Have we got anybody else who wishes to speak in respect of Councillor Knowles? Thank you. Then I will move on. Can I now ask for tributes in respect of Councillor Proger? If you don't mind, Councillor Rudel, I'll just go to the Conservative group. And I believe it's Councillor Hartman. Yes, thank you very much indeed, Chairman. Yes, Derek was well known, a Worcester man born and bred, known as Mr Worcester, really. He was well known to many in the city. He was a city councillor for over, I think, almost 40 years. And he was a lifelong public servant who fulfilled several roles. He was twice chairman of this council, which is very unusual. And he received his MBE for his service on the War Pensions Committee, something that he seldom talked about, but I know was very proud of. He was also, of course, chair of the Fire Authority for six years. But I remember him best for his role when he was cabinet member for Highways. Those who were mean said there wasn't a piece of road in Worcester that Derek hadn't been photographed by. But actually, I think that showed his dedication to the job. Because Derek was a firm believer in getting out there and seeing what was going on and what was being done. And he travelled the highways and byways of this county. He, of course, served on the Worcester Racecourse Committee for a good number of years. And I think one of the things that gave him the greatest pleasure was when his great friend Jim Lewis won the Gold Cup three times on Best Mate. He was a tremendous character, Derek. And we will sadly miss him on this side of the Chamber because Derek was a gentleman in everything he did. Thank you, Councillor Hardman. You've been very patient with me. Councillor Oodle. No, thank you, chair. Thank you for correcting me. I would also like to mention Derek Proger. We often clashed in this council chamber. He was the last Conservative to represent St. John's, my division, when he was elected between 1976 and 1980. His family lived in St. John's and many people referred to him. I've heard it said Mr. Worcester, he was really referred to as Mr. St. John's. Whereas I, of course, am the voice of St. John's. He was very much respected in the local community and represented Bedford Island with much dedication, passion and enthusiasm. In fact, he was the first person I stood against in 1990 and he beat me by just over 100 votes. We often worked together to support local issues. We would argue, disagree and then have a drink together. He was never bitter and I was always very generous and I particularly respected his time when he was chair of the fire authority and I was leader of the opposition. He taught me a lot. I owe him much. I just regret I never had an opportunity to say thank you and goodbye. He will be missed. Thank you, chair. Thank you, Councillor Oodle. Are there any other tributes to Councillor Proger? I'm not seeing anybody. Thank you. I would now like to welcome Father Tim Williams and invite him to say prayers. If we could be upstanding for prayers and remain standing afterwards. Thank you. So, as you gather today to elect a new chair of Worcestershire County Council, it's right to pause for reflection on what this moment represents. Not just a procedural step, but a reaffirmation of public service. Public service is a noble calling and each of you is being entrusted by your communities to act not only in your own interests, but on behalf of the people who live and work in this county. And that trust is both a privilege and a responsibility. One that calls for humility, wisdom and a deep sense of duty that transcends party politics. Let me share a story. Some years ago, a local councillor in a small rural town, known not for grand speeches but for quiet service, was asked why she kept such a humble routine. She still walked to meetings, stopped to speak with neighbours and spent hours answering letters by hand. And her reply was this. When I was elected, a woman from my village said to me, we didn't give you a crown, we gave you a bucket. Now get ready to carry some water. And that image has stayed with me. Leadership, especially in public life, is not about status or visibility. It's about service. It's about carrying the needs, concerns and hopes of others, even when they weigh heavy. The chair you welcome today will not simply hold a title. They'll be the steward of your shared work, tasked with setting a tone of fairness, upholding the dignity of debate and representing this council with humility and grace. This is a moment to remember that public office is a public trust. It's not about rising above others, but about standing beside them. True leadership doesn't begin with power, it begins with responsibility. It doesn't end in recognition. It ends in a quiet impact. On everyday lives. So may our new chair be someone today who will carry that bucket well, who needs not to be served, but to serve. God of wisdom and truth, we pause before you at this important moment in the life of Worcestershire County Council. As we prepare to welcome a new chair. Grant them clear minds and generous hearts, guide them in their decision-making and bless them with strength, patience and humility. May the new chair serve with fairness and grace, encouraging respectful debate, wise leadership and a deep commitment to public service. Help all who serve on this council to remember the trust placed in them to listen with compassion, to lead with integrity and to act always for the good of the people they represent. We thank God for all who have served this county in the past and pray, especially for the repose of the souls of Nigel and Derek. May they rest in peace. Bless all who serve our county and may the meetings be places of wisdom, justice and hope. Amen. Thank you. The ones who've been around a bit know what I'm going to do now. So if you could talk amongst yourselves, I'm just going to kiss the vicar. Right, thank you. Now, I will be chairing agenda items number one, two and oddly not, agenda item six, I think, as well, although I haven't seen the announcements. And then from agenda item number three onwards, it will be the new chair who's officiating. So if we can press on agenda item number one, we've got apologies and declarations of interest. At the start of this meeting, I will ask Hazel Best to read out any apologies already received. I've received one apology, which is from Councillor John Lurie. Thank you. Thank you. And I will now ask if there are any other apologies for absence today from the Chamber. If you could raise your hands. I'm not seeing any. Thank you. I will now call for any details of any declarations of interest, together with details of the items to which they relate. Remember, you only need to declare an interest where it relates to an item on the agenda today. Have we got any declarations? Fabulous. Then we will go on to agenda item number two, which is election of chairman. Now, on my piece of paper here, it says that I'm to say a few words about my term of office, which leads me to a bit of an issue, because I already did that at the last meeting in February. I won't say whose fault that was, but just follow my eyes. And for those of you who don't recall, it was my 4 and 20 virgins speech. So you missed a cracker for those that weren't there. So there is no point in my repeating it now, because after the elections, half of the Chamber have already heard it, and the other half have no idea who I am, or why they might want to know about the year I've just had. So all I will say is that I have had a great year, I have thoroughly enjoyed it, and I would thank those who gave me the opportunity. I would end by, again, thanking the officers for all their support, and wishing everyone in the Chamber today good luck for the future. Right, so we move on to agenda item number 6, which is Chairman's announcement, and I thought we were bringing it forward, but we're not? Nope. Always goes well on your last meeting, doesn't it? It's bound to. Thank you. So we will stick with agenda item number 2, and that is the election of Chairman. Can I call for nominations for Chairman, please? Yeah, councillor David Taylor, I'd like to propose councillor Benet for chair. So I've got, sorry, councillor David Taylor. I'm councillor David Taylor. Thank you, and you are proposing councillor Roger Benet for chair. Thank you, have you got to say it. Hello, yeah, it's councillor Joanne Monk, and I second Roger Benet for chairman. Thank you, Chair. I propose Louis Stephen as chair. Thank you, have we got a seconder? Yes, Andrew Cross, second you. Thank you. Have we any other nominations for chairman? No, just two? Then there are two nominations, so we will therefore go to a vote. Voting will be undertaken by raising hands with the... If you've got six people. Five. Oh, you've got half the room, that's fine, thank you very much. Then we will be having a named vote. So I don't need to do that bit. Thank you. So I'm going to do councillor Benet first. So I'm going to do the name vote. Oh, so you're going to... Yeah. So this is unusual, so it's not set in legislation how you have to elect your chairman. It generally would be by show of hands, because you wouldn't normally want to be saying if you're against or abstaining. So I take it this is a named vote for, if we do in alphabetical order, this has been a request for a named vote for the election of councillor Roger Michael Bennett. So what will happen now is I will call out each councillor's name alphabetical. The chair of the meeting does not get a vote, but in the event that there is an equality of votes, the chair does get the casting vote. So I won't be asking you a part of this, but in the event of an equality. So in alphabetical order, I shall start. So you're going to have to say if you're for, against or abstaining. So this is unusual, but we'll go with the request. So in alphabetical order, councillor Mel Alcott. This is, and I've been asked to do a named vote for, this is for councillor Roger Michael Bennett. So you have to say if you are for, against or abstaining. Against. Councillor Martin Allen. Against. Against. Councillor Alan Amos. For. For. Councillor Dave Aubrey. For. For councillor Alan Bales. Yes. Against. Councillor Sambasto. For. For councillor Satinda Bell. For. For councillor Paul Bennett. Against. Against. Councillor Roger Bennett. It's your own election, so my view is you shouldn't vote, but. For. For. For. For. Councillor Dan Birch. Against. Against. Councillor Boatwright-Green. Against. Against. Against Councillor Bowen. For. For. For councillor Cleary. For. For councillor Creswell. For. For councillor Crosby. For. For councillor Cross. Against. Against councillor Dunkley. For. For councillor Ecock. For. For councillor Edmonds. for Councillor Evans, against Councillor Fordington, against Councillor Foster, for Councillor Hardman, against Councillor Hart, against Councillor Hopkins, for Councillor Hulme, for Councillor James, against Councillor John Lewis, not present, Councillor Jenkins, against Councillor Jones, for Councillor Kearney, against Councillor Kent, against Councillor May, against Councillor McSweeney, against Councillor McVeigh, against Councillor Miller, against Councillor Monk, I knew this would catch me out, I've done it immediately, Councillor Ashley Monk, for Councillor Joe Monk, for Councillor Moorhead, against Councillor Morris, against Councillor Perks, for Councillor Pingree, against Councillor Price, for Councillor Riaz, against Councillor Josh Robinson, against Councillor Linda Robinson, against Councillor Robson, against Councillor Shaw, for Councillor Stephen, against Councillor Taylor, for Councillor Tudge, for Councillor Turner, for Councillor Udall, against Councillor Upton, for Councillor Victory, against Councillor Wells, against, we will now tot up the maths, Councillor Warton, how could I forget, Councillor Warton, we will now tot up, apologies. It is what it is, and we will deal with that as we will, I can say, the whole thing crumbles pretty fucking quick with anybody who don't pay me, so, none of them are going to go to the games of the knowledge, it's a bit true, I don't know, they've had a group meeting, but I don't know what will they be, I don't know. We've changed, sorry, I'll announce the results, so, in terms of the named vote, we had 26-4, and 30 against. So we now have to do the vote for the other candidate which we could do by a show of hands where we can have hands which we will then count or if five people are going to rise we'll do a named vote for that. So it looks like we will do a show of hands so I'll hand back to the chair who will do asking for those voting for Councillor Louis-Joseph-Stevens and then we'll have to keep them raised for quite a while because it's going to take us a while to count. Thank you. Thanks Hazel. Yes, as Hazel was saying this is now for Councillor Louis-Joseph-Stevens and can you raise your yellow cards and can you keep them in the air held high so we've got time to count. Thank you. So all those in favour of Councillor Stephens thank you. Thank you. We've got that number. If you could all put your cards down thank you. All those against if you could raise your cards now and keep them high thank you. Thank you. And so that was 30 votes in favour and 26 votes against so Councillor Louis-Joseph oh there's another name in there Shay-Steven has been elected as the new chairman of the council if we could have a round of applause. Thank you. Thank you. Okay we now move over to a slight ceremonial part of the meeting where the outgoing chairman Tracey Onslow will now hand over the chairman's chain of office to the new chairman, Councillor Louis-Joseph Shea-Stevens, if they can come to the top table, and we're going to exit stage left to make way for photographs. Okay, I'm going to show my age here, but this is a bit like Mike Leeds' runaround. I'm going to show my age here from back in the 1980s with the changing seats. Okay, right. So I now have to get the chair to sign their declaration of office, which I have now conveniently lost within my papers. Here it is. So I'll hand this over, and I'll ask you to read this out and to then sign and date, and I will witness it. I, Louis-Joseph Shea-Steven, having been elected to the office of chairman of Worcestershire County Council, declare that I take that office upon myself and would duly and faithfully fulfil the duties of it according to the best of my judgment and ability. So it is now for the new chairman, Councillor Shea-Steven, to present the past chairman's badge to the outgoing chairman, Tracey Onslow. So where's the badge? Yeah. So where's the badge? Yes. Get in, get in the badge. Get in, get in, get in, get in, get in, get in. Right. Thank you very much. I'd just like to say thank you very much to Tracey for all your hard work. I know it's not a small undertaking what you've done for this last year, and I understand you've done good service for all your residents and Worcestershire as a whole. Thank you. It's very much appreciated. I'd also like to just briefly acknowledge the work of the chair's consult as well and for all the support that we've given as well during the year. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thanks a lot. Thank you. Have a good minute. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Just give us a couple of minutes whilst we rearrange the top table and then we'll be back on to the agenda of the meeting. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. On agenda item number three, appointment of vice chairman. Can I please call for nominations for vice chairman? Yes, Councillor Davutale would like to propose Councillor Roger Bennett for vice chair. Thank you very much. And are there any other nominations? Vice chair. For vice chair. I have a seconder. I have a seconder. Sorry, your name. Sorry. Oh, that was. Councillor Boehrs. Councillor Boehrs. Thank you. Are there any other nominations? Councillor Boehrs. Right. Well, it's about to get complicated. I'd like to nominate Councillor Paul Bennett. Okay. Thank you. Do we have a seconder for that? Councillor Alcott. Thank you. I would like to second Councillor Paul Bennett. Thank you. Thank you. So, as there are two nominations, we will have a straight vote. If there are more than two, then obviously there will be different procedures. We'll be voting using cards. So, we will, I guess, go straight to the vote on that. So, for the first candidate, can I please see a show of hands all those... make it clear it's Roger Bennett? Yes. So, to be very clear, we are voting for the position of Vice Chairman and it's Roger Bennett. So, all those in favour of Roger Bennett being Vice Chairman, please raise your hands now. 26. Thank you. And we'll now go to the second nomination, which is Councilor Paul Bennett. All those in favour of Paul Bennett being the Vice Chairman. Please raise your hands now. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. So, Paul Bennett is now duly elected as the Vice Chair for the very second. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. So, Paul, if you'd like to come up to the table. So, the Chairman will now present the Vice Chairman's badge to the Vice Chairman, Councillor Paul Bennett. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I, Paul Spencer Bennett, having been elected to the office of Vice Chairman of Worcestershire County Council, declare that I take that office upon myself and will duly and faithfully fulfil the duties of it according to the best of my judgment and ability. And can I just thank everybody? Thank you. Okay. Thank you very much, everybody. We will now start the meeting. So, before we start, I would just like to say a few words about the meeting today. Please remain seated when you are called to speak. Just a reminder that whilst debate may be robust, we continue in this chamber to conduct ourselves with mutual respect and that we do not use personal remarks. Can I ask that there is no unnecessary talking, moving about or leaving the chamber? It is important that you switch your microphone off after speaking. If you wish to speak, please raise your hand using the yellow voting card and wait to be acknowledged by Hazel Best, who will be keeping a list of speakers. A reminder that all speeches are timed and you will hear a beep of 30 seconds before your allocated time is due to end. A 40-minute lunch break will be taken at about 1 o'clock today, depending on where we are on the agenda. I would also like to ask you to switch your mobile phones off or set it to silent. And a reminder, please, that if you wish to make a point of order, you must quote the relevant section of the Constitution. Thank you. We will now move on to Agenda Item 4, which is the appointment of the Leader of the Council. And we are going to ask for nominations for Leader of the Council, please. Councillor David Taylor, I would like to propose Councillor Joanne Monk for Leader of the Council. Thank you very much. Do we have a seconder for that? Councillor Walsh has seconded. Thank you. Do we have any other nominations for Leader of the Council? No. That makes it very tidy. As there is only one nomination, we will not have a vote. So, basically now, Joanne Monk, you are now Leader of the Council. Thank you very much and well done. I would now like to declare the Cabinet and give you the names of those people. So, Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for One Worcestershire is Councillor David Taylor. Cabinet Member with Responsibility for Children and Families is Councillor Justin Bowen. Cabinet Member with Responsibility for Education and SEND is Councillor Dr. Stephen Foster. Cabinet Member with Responsibility for Health and Community Support, Councillor Dr. Satinder Bell. Cabinet Member with Responsibility for Adult Social Care is Councillor Susan Eacock. Cabinet Member with Responsibility for Highways is Councillor Carl Perks. And, finally, Cabinet Member with Responsibility for Business and Training is Councillor Alan Amos. I've got one more. I've got one more. I've got one more. And, we have Councillor, Cabinet Member with Responsibility for Finance and Efficiency is Councillor Rob Warton. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much. We'll now move on to the next item, Agenda Item 5, which is Public Participation. We have two people who are here to speak to us today. Thank you. For the first speaker, which is Sam Amar, who is asking a question about the provision of Braille services to the elderly. I remind you that you have three minutes to ask a question and a reminder that you will get a beep at about 30 seconds before the end. Thank you. Over to you. Thank you. Good morning, Council, and congratulations, Chairman. I hope you enjoy your tenor. So, it's simple. The translation services in Worcestershire are mostly there to help the 99% of the population. Only 1% of the population have little English skills. You can fit them in here. The problem with the rhetoric that is coming out of National Party's reform fails to address this fact. The facts are simple. These services include, in most part, Braille and audio translations for the most vulnerable people in society. We are an ageing population and people are losing their sight when they get older. So, can I please ask this Council to ensure that they put Worcestershire residents ahead of politics and national rhetoric and really look into the facts of translations. Thank you very much, Chairman. Thank you very much for your contribution. I will ask that you receive a written response to your question from Jay Ports. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Welcome. Thank you for coming. Our second speaker is Jonathan Coleman, who is asking a question about the A38 Bromsgrove Route Enhancement Programme. Mr Coleman, you have three minutes to ask your question. And I would just say that you will get a reminder beep at 30 seconds before the end of your time. Thank you. Hello. Congratulations to all the new faces here today. Many of you are aware, a highly contentious Brecht project has been causing disruption, mayhem and misery to the residents of Bromsgrove. Despite the revised Brecht group presenting petition with thousands of signatures from local residents, businesses, councillors and support of the MP, the previous Council ignored all these concerns and forged ahead. They have needlessly cut down thousands of trees, disrupted vermin from waterways, causing them to spread into local housing estates, caused travel times across Bromsgrove to crawl to an absolute halt and blighted the views of hundreds of homes. This is on top of many unpopular and questionable side projects, also needlessly being forced onto the residents while ignoring genuine improvements that could be made. The issue has become so serious that Bradley Thomas, the MP for Bromsgrove has raised the issue in Parliament. In July, this is set to get worse, with Regent's Park Road being closed to the Ocals estate, meaning residents on that estate will need to take an eight-mile-long detour just to get home. Having spoken to many of the councillors here previously and holding a meeting with Liberal Democrats under reform yesterday, I know many of you share the same concerns about the effectiveness of the Brecht scheme, the impact it's having and the cost of it. Workers on the ground have already confirmed mistakes have been made and major utility works need to be redone. So, with residents also in agreement, a recent study of nearly 4,000 of the residents showing that 90% of them don't think Brecht will make any difference at all and that an alternative solution, namely a Western Relief Road, needs to be revisited. I would like to ask the council if they will be willing to meet with revised Brecht, the local councillors and any concerned residents so that we can look to make alterations and changes to the Brecht project, commission a modern study into the Western Relief Road for Bromsgrove so that adequate infrastructure can be secured for the future. Thank you very much. Thank you for your contribution. I will ask to make sure you get a reply in good time. Thank you. So, we move on to Agenda Item 6, which is the review of the minutes. May I now sign the minutes? Is everyone comfortable for me to sign those minutes? Thank you very much. Okay, so we're on Agenda Item 7, Chairman's Announcements. My predecessor, Tracey Onslow, has already referred to her previous announcements. So, I'd just like to remind everybody that we are going to do a very big group photograph just before we have lunch at approximately one o'clock today. If you could all do that before you get your food, that would be really much appreciated. This is a moment of history, I think, for all of us. Thank you very much, everyone who has supported me today to become Chairman of the Council. As we all know, we are a council in no role or control, and it is incumbent on all of us to try, despite our differences, to work together as far as we possibly can to make sure we put the residents of Worcestershire ahead of everything else that we do. And I think it's probably quite good to just briefly quote Jo Cox when she said, we have more in common than which divides us. And I think that's very much true here in this chamber today. Right. So, the next item is Agenda Item 8, which is political structures and appointments. Now, we do have a motion, which is pertinent to the appointments today. So, I'm going to move that motion forward, and we will discuss and debate that motion first before we do the appointments. So, can I therefore ask members to turn to pages 11 to 14, and we will now consider motion number two, which is about the Constitution. Members are reminded that a maximum of 90 minutes will be set aside for all discussions of motions, and I would therefore ask that any points are made in a brief, concise way. Should an amendment to a motion be moved, the allocated time set aside for motions will be paused until after the hard copy of the amendment has been circulated around the council chamber and the mover and had time to read out the amendment. Okay. So, fine. So, I'm going to ask the movers of the motion, which is Councillor Matt Jenkins, to move the motion, please. Thank you, Chair. These amendments aim to improve governance, enhance representation, and ensure that scrutiny is fit for purpose. I mean, we know that scrutiny is a vital role of the council. Its primary purpose is to ensure accountability and promote better services by acting as a critical friend to the executive. Those amendments are by expanding the OSPB to include vice-chairs from the scrutiny panels. We believe that this will lead to a more diverse range of voices on this crucial panel. It should also reduce the occurrence of panels not being represented on OSPB whenever a panel chair does not attend, which has often happened in the past. Allowing substitutes, the other part of our amendment, on scrutiny panels, will help to ensure that scrutiny panels have cross-party representation as much as possible. As a member of a scrutiny panel, you must be actively engaged and attend as many meetings as possible. However, we realise that there are times when, for valid reasons, councillors are unable to attend a meeting. By allowing substitutes, this will ensure continuity and better scrutiny. With new leadership at the council, with all cabinet members being new to their role, and most being new to the council, it is more important than ever that scrutiny acts in its vital role of being a critical friend. So, to conclude, these two amendments to the constitution, we believe, will improve the governance, enhance representation, and ensure that scrutiny does its job. So, I urge a councillor to vote for these amendments. Thank you, Chair. Thank you. Do I have a seconder? Councillor Boatman. I second the motion and reserve my right to speak later in the debate. As Chairman, I'm going to ask if this is to be dealt with today. Yes. Thank you. So, I'm now going to call for anyone who would like to speak. Sorry. Morning, Council. I suppose my journey in the council, I was elected in 2017, and one of the first roles that I had was as a member of a scrutiny committee. And I was very fortunate with that to progress from that role through to chairing the committee and also becoming a cabinet member and now leader of the conservative, much reduced group. I think scrutiny has a huge role to play in the overall operation of the council, both from holding the administration to account, but also, I think, more for developing policy ideas and progressing things through subcommittees. So, as a group, we'll be supporting this change today. I've always been absolutely adamant that attendance at scrutiny is a really important part of your role as a councillor and endeavoured to make myself available for all of those meetings and encouraged others to do so. And I think this opportunity, obviously, with a number of new councillors, and many people do hold down daytime jobs as well, I think the opportunity for people to be able to substitute to the committees will enhance the experience of all of the councillors and would give them an opportunity to experience different panels in different situations. I think, moving forward, we've obviously got a council that is going to be very different to the ones that we've been seeing over the last few years, but I strongly support this change, and our group will also be supporting it. Thank you for your contribution. I now call Councillor Taylor. Good morning, all. So, as a group, we've talked about this motion several times, and I mean, I don't know, mentions Councillor, mentions scrutiny. The previous councillor mentioned adequacy. Does that mean before it was inadequate? Does it also mean that, you know, years of Conservative administration, or was it not changed during that period? That's what we would like to question. Substitutes. My take on this, or our take on this, is we understand the reasons. I think scrutiny panels are a good thing, a necessary thing. But I also think that they are there for one purpose and one purpose only. I think people should, if they are committed to their part and committed to the council, they should, like me, put it in a diary and make sure they arrive at said venue when they say we're going to send it. In other words, I think a substitute is not an idea we would back. The motion is what I find more painful when it's the scrutiny panel itself, the OSPB, of nine. How many do we stop at? You know, the whole point of this is to get through things quicker, to make sure that we represent our constituents better. We have to say also, the chair mentioned there about working together. I can probably talk to 26 people in the room. We've not been consulted about these outside of this meeting. So I don't think we have worked together yet. I know it's early days. So our party won't be standing behind this motion. I've finished what I've got to say, but I think there's other people in our party who would like to say something too. Thank you, Councillor Taylor. Can I please call now Councillor Bell? Thank you. Thank you, Chair. My question just goes back to my colleague Councillor here, to one of the comments. Although, as I do agree with Councillor Taylor that we have not had the chance to be consulted for this motion. But I would also like a little bit of clarification from my colleague Councillor about Council is going to be looking different. It's not going to be the same as it was for previous years. So I just want a bit more clarification of that comment. Why would it look different at this point on? I'm just going to come in at this point. So this is a debate. It is not questions. So during the debate, we can't be putting direct questions to other speakers. Once a speaker has spoken, they generally wouldn't be speaking again, and this is a point of order. So this is a debate. Thank you. Thank you. We've heard two speakers, Councillor Matt Jenkins to start, and the leader of the Conservatives, both supporting the motion. and I'll listen very carefully to what they've said, how important it is to actively engage and attend. That was Councillor Matt Jenkins. And then the Conservative leader, attendance is a really important part, and yet they support substitutes. We've all been elected. It's a very small amount of time required to attend. It's a complete nonsense to actually support this motion. Thank you. Thank you, Chairman. I'm more than happy to support this motion. I also serve as a Wicham and District Councillor, and today is the planning committee which I sit on, for which I have sent a substitute to attend this meeting here today. There are meetings, many of us in this room also serve as District Councillors, Burrow Councillors and Town Councillors, where there's crossover of meetings. It can't be expected for us to be in two places at once. Sending substitutes is important. There may be a time where a district or city meeting takes precedent over a county meeting, and it's important that your group is still able to be represented there, and that somebody is still able to put a point across. So I think it's incredibly important that the County Council has substitutes, so I'm more than happy to support this motion. I've now got Councillor Hart. Thank you very much indeed, Mr Chairman. Councillor Dan Birch has stolen some of my thunder, but I think over a number of years, we have indeed, as a Council, wrestled with this, and absolutely now, I think it is the right time to do this. Two of the previous contributors said that they weren't consulted, but of course it is a matter for individual members and their groups as to whether they wish to put forward notices of motion forward to the Chamber. We weren't consulted on reforms choice of leader. We weren't consulted on reforms choice for chairman. That is democracy, and that is what we are entirely here for. I don't think it's a nonsense for substitutes to be able to replace a member who might be genuinely ill. And of course, attendance is really important, but we have a bit of a two-tier system, because our regulatory meeting, for example, planning here, and our other committees allow for substitutes, but not the scrutiny panels. And it's absolutely right that those who are on those panels and who will know the dates, months, and sometimes 12, 18 months in advance, should prioritise those commitments. But just occasionally, they won't quite properly, with legitimate reason, and I'm sure the person who's not here today and has sent their apologies also has a legitimate reason, are not able to attend. But you will still want to represent your communities and the position of your group and the manifesto that you've been elected to. So it's perfectly proper, Mr Chairman, that this notice of motion should be supported and perfectly proper that the elected members have brought it forward today. Thank you, Councillor Hart. Now call on Councillor Perks, please. Thank you, Chairman. I'd just like to question the timing of this. Again, Chair, you've already stated about working together and taking on board my colleague's point just there. Unfortunately, this does smack of tactical voting from queer politicians. I'm now going to call for Councillor Hartman. Thank you very much, Chairman. Yes, I mean, the point that I would make to members of the Council, of course, is the question that sometimes these panels struggle to be caught. And Fred say, I mean, I myself had a small spell in hospital. As some members will know. So I was unable to attend. Some of our scrutiny panels, for instance, waste credit, ordinate governance, have relatively small numbers. And it only takes two members to be either ill, absence, on holiday, taking their dog to the vet, whatever. And the panel is then in chorus in time to go ahead. Therefore, I think this is a sensible time. And just to do with the question of timing, of course, I mean, we are laying out an agenda and a structure of working for certainly the next three years. I think it's personally, I think it might be slightly longer. And the start of a new Council year is surely the correct time to make these changes. We've already seen, I think, some changes to the Cabinet being made by the Administration. And therefore, I think it's perfectly correct that we make changes in the... in how overview and scrutiny... which is going to call this Administration to account. It is perfectly correct that we do this at this time. Thank you. I'm now going to call Councillor Eutle. Well, speaking of security, I'm a politician. Somebody who's been here for 30 years and dedicated my life to public service, I resent the allegation which has just been made. Substitutions are allowed on County Council committees. You can't have a substitute on planning, on audit and governance, and all the other small subcommittees which exist. So why can't we have substitution at scrutiny? It makes plain common sense. I've had to miss meetings because of hospital appointments, illness, work commitments, etc. I should have had the ability to ask a colleague to attend on my behalf at scrutiny meetings. The fact that I couldn't is unjust, it's wrong and it's unfair. And I think this change in the Constitution is something which we could support. It's something which we in the Labour Party have been asking for for many years. So I'm very delighted that now the Conservatives are in opposition. They've agreed to it. So they can actually support us with our agenda. I support this motion. I think it can explain common sense and it's a way forward for this Council. It opens it up to more people to participate, which can only be a good thing. Thank you. I now call for Councillor Allen. Yes, good morning, Chair, and good morning, Council. And can I give my congratulations to your appointment as leader? Well done. I'm not a career politician. I spent 10 and a half years in the Navy. I fought in the Falkman's War and then I spent 30 years running my own business. I'm definitely not a career politician. I sometimes don't think I'm really a politician at all. As you can see, most of the members on my side would probably agree with that. Now, I sat on planning at the last Council and at times we needed substitutes. Unfortunately, we were allowed to have substitutes because it's really important when these committees are called, whatever they are, that they meet and matters are decided and discussed. And for new members, you will begin to find that sometimes on committees you start struggling for people. Things happen. Life gets in the way. It's easy to say, I must be there for everything. And I try to be there for everything, but sometimes you can't. Perhaps I have an oncologist appointment and in that case, I have to go to something like that. So please forgive if I don't actually turn up to every single meeting. There normally is an extremely good reason why I can't. I also sat on the economy panel for the last Council and we struggled for numbers. More than once, I walked through the door and there was a sigh of relief because I'd just made it core it. And if I hadn't been there, the meeting wouldn't have happened and this Council wouldn't have functioned so effectively. Now, the Vice-Chairs, I understand there is no remuneration, so it's not going to cost anybody anything at the end of the day, but it may make things better because if the Chair can't attend, the meeting can still go ahead because the Vice-Chair can take over the meeting. And I think if you're going to do these changes, this is probably the right time to do the changes, not at the end of a Council and push it on to somebody else. This is the time to debate it as we're doing today and say, OK, would it be nice if we'd done it some time ago, but we're doing it now and it seems a sensible way to do it. Thank you. Thank you. Now call on Councillor Riaz. Thank you, Mr Chairman, and congratulations on your elevation to the Chair of Office. Just two quick points in terms of greater scrutiny and transparency. We all know that local government reform is around the corner and there's going to be a massive cull in the number of Councillors across the county. So it's absolutely essential that this is the right time to start expanding some of those scrutiny. That scrutiny and that transparency by having more members because our electorate will demand greater transparency and openness and greater scrutiny. So this is the right way to do it and possibly even more at a later stage. And on secondly, in terms of substitutes, I know we had a motion at Worcester City Council not too far ago from our colleagues from the Lib Dems which thoroughly and really, really well argued about actually new entrants into, new recruits into the council, attracting younger female people, women into the council and actually the complications in and around managing childcare in and around obviously if somebody does get pregnant in terms of that and actually, you know, returning to leave all these complications get in the way and actually as a new dynamic council going into a new rear, it's absolutely essential that we allow these mechanisms to for as many people to be engaged in local politics and in the county council. So, these are welcome changes that I'll be supporting. Thank you. Are there any other speakers? Catherine Long. Thank you, Chair. I'm not going to agree to this motion. I've sat for the past four years witnessing people coming and going when they felt like it. when you sign up to be a councillor it's something you should take very seriously and if you sit on more than one panel you have to ask why. Are they going to conflict? If they do then you shouldn't be sat on all of those panels. If you have health issues that are that serious then perhaps you should resign and let someone else who is more committed do that. I think it is purely tactical voting. We have the likes of the Tories, Labour, Greens, Lib Dems, a couple of independents all gathering together doing their little not rainbow coalition but their rainbow agreement. Why now? You have to ask why now definitely considering that Reform won over 47% of the votes. We have an electorate of people that were 47% voting for us as Reform. they are now going to be disappointed. I think some of your voters are going to be very disappointed that you have all gathered together. I have nothing wrong with having substitutes. That is not the issue here. The issue is purely that it has been a tactical vote. I have spoken to all the leaders and I can't understand any of the points they have made on this. They have just gathered together purely on a tactical vote, purely just to get their snouts in the trough to get paid because these positions are paid as chairs. The vice chairs are not. Many a time some of these people have not got 100% attendance. There are a few that are. I think you will find that some of these people that are voting for this now, you will actually find that they don't attend every meeting. Thank you. Thank you. Okay, I am going to ask Councillor Boatwright to reserve his right to speak. Would you like to speak? Firstly, I think it is quite funny that one of the individuals who has just spoken, I had some of my residents complaining that you were doing your emails during a scrutiny meeting. Thanks for that one. You won 31.7% of the vote. And this idea that all of a sudden I have changed my view on this, I'm afraid, is very misleading because I have always believed that we need to do this. I have been championing this for four years. If people are happy to then come to my door and offer this to me, that is absolutely fine because these are two areas I have said very clearly we need to improve. Also, I had a call from your now deputy leader and I spoke to him about this. I had this conversation, I explained why my views were so instilled about this. So this idea that we haven't spoken to you is incredibly false. To be fair, Joe, I would have preferred to have spoken to you, unfortunately that wasn't available and I didn't have your number. This idea of career politicians, it's a weak insult to those of us with careers, so it's a cheap shot and it's not going to land very well, especially bearing in mind I've got three jobs. And this idea that substitutes is somehow a bad thing. First of all, I once had to announce the birth of a child from this very chair and I can honestly say there are things that happen in people's lives where we need people to actually be able to step out. We have to get a work-life balance properly so that people can stand and they can represent their communities and sometimes we have medical appointments. I've had to skip a budget meeting after waiting seven years for an ear operation. These things happen. At the same time, I expect to be able to ask experts to stand on scrutiny panels when we know something is coming up and it's useful. You were very keen to highlight the fact that you had counsellor doctors, which by the way, I did not know was a thing and I might add myself to that list. I quite like the sound of that. And that's absolutely fine by all means, but that means we should give experts the opportunity to be there. OSPB is a vice chair. I was deputy leader of my group for many years and I got no remuneration for that. Sometimes I had to step in, sometimes I had to go and do things that cost me time, but you do it because it's part of your community and what you do. And in terms of OSPB chairs being there, you are a leader on that scrutiny panel. You are a deputy and therefore your involvement on OSPB should include voting rights. You should have every right to be there and raise your concerns. It also is a part of succession planning. Only 21 of us, I believe, I'm happy to be corrected on that, were actually at the last council. And so this gives us an opportunity to develop people's skills and make sure that people learn new things. And finally, if this was political, I wouldn't have spoken to you about it. I wouldn't have had that conversation, I would have kept it in secret, but I didn't. I openly had that conversation with you. We disagreed and that's fine. That's what's going to happen sometimes. And by the way, I'm going to disagree with the Conservatives, I'm going to disagree with the Greens, I'm going to disagree with my own because I am an individual and that's what happens. Paul's already nodding, it says it all. So this is a fantastic idea, it works well, and that's how this happens. So I fully support this and I hope everyone else will too. Okay, thank you very much. I'm now going to ask the original mover of the motion, Councillor Jenkins, to sum up. Thank you, Chair. Thank you, especially Councillor Boatwright for that thing. Probably better than I could cover the issues that he's raised there and thank you all for the debate. I think just a couple of points that I want to make. Certainly having substitutes is so normal on so many other councils that often people are amazed that we don't allow substitutes on scrutiny. So I think it is basically the norm. Most councils do that. But I think in answer to the point I made about why now, I think obviously firstly we've got a brand new council. It's under no overall control. That's certainly never happened in the 12 years that I've been a councillor. And I think something that came up today, I maybe have misheard about your new cabinet, but it sounds to me like the new cabinet had no cabinet member for environment. There always used to be a cabinet member whose role was just environment. And that in itself I see as needing a lot of scrutiny because in my view as a Green, you wouldn't be surprised to know that the biggest issue the world faces is climate emergency. And I know many people across the chamber may disagree with me on that. But clearly, if you listen to the science, it is. So therefore, that in itself is a reason for this motion to actually kind of improve the scrutiny process because we want people to be there to actually scrutinise the decisions that you make that we will definitely be disagreeing with if you downplay the importance of the environment and the climate emergency. So basically, we need better scrutiny as much as possible now. So thank you. Thank you. Councillor Jenkins. We're going to take this vote in two parts. The first part will be to amend Article 8C to increase the membership of OSPB to include the vice-chairs of the five ONS panels. And the second vote will be to amend Article 8I to allow substitutes on the five ONS panels. So we're going to do the first vote first, which is the increase the membership of the OSPB. So we'll move straight into the vote. So all those in favour, please raise your yellow cards now. all those against. Do I have any abstentions? No. No? Fine. Okay. So that part of the motion is carried. We'll now move to the second part of the motion, which is to allow the substitutes. All those in favour, please raise your hands. Okay. Raise your hands. All those against, please raise your hands. Thank you very much. So that motion is carried. Thank you. So I'm just going to say a couple of things. So given that the motion has been carried to change the membership of OSPB from 9 to 14, the next item on the agenda would be to, part of it is to nominate the chairs and vice chairs of all the committees. One of those committees, the membership size, haven't just increased. So I will ask the chairman if they would agree that there would be a short adjournment of 15 to 20 minutes to allow me the opportunity with the chief executive to meet with the group leaders to discuss nominations and then we come back in the chamber. Agreed. Thank you. Well done. Great. Congratulations. Thank you. Yeah. Right. Have you been at Worcester? Yeah. Have you? Yeah. I was the mayor of Worcester. The chairman's the old ante. Although it might be interesting. My new therein would be fairly tight at Worcester. Oh, yes. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, everybody. We could come back to order, please. If you want to know, we're on agenda item number eight. please turn to pages three to eight in the main agenda pack and appendices one and two that were sent separately. And I'm now going to intervene at this point. So we will be inviting the leader to move recommendations one, little a to little d of the political and constitutional structures report. I'm just coming on to say that the recommendation B, when it says agrees the size of its ordinary committees, I'm just making it abundantly clear that that will be including the increase in size of OSPB from nine to 14. And therefore, the number of seats on committees therefore will reflect that change in the size of the committee. So I will now ask the leader to move those recommendations as amended. Thank you. I move recommendation one a to d as set out in paragraph one of the report. Thank you. And can we have a seconder, please? My second. Are there any speakers on this? So we can take that as agreed then. Agreed? Thank you. I'm coming on again. This is where it gets a little bit more technical. So we're now moving on to the appointments for committees. So I will ask the leader just to move that, well, we'll leave that to just move the recommendations, but we still need to do the votes. So it's just at this point recommending that we have to do the constitutional appointments and that I then be authorised to finalise the appointments to outside bodies in consultation with group leaders as set out afterwards. But we will be doing an actual vote, which I will take everyone through because this is where it gets slightly complicated in relation to the nominations for chairs and vice chairs for all of the committees. Thank you. I move recommendation in paragraph 20A as set out of the report. Do we have a seconder? My second. So assuming that's agreed, I will now take us through the process of how we are going to do the votes for appointments to the political committees. So in the appendices to the published paper, there was a blank table. I think it's appendix two, which sets out the committees for which we'll be seeking nominations for chairs and vice chairs. What we are going to do first is I'm going to deal with the nominations for planning and regulatory committee, standards and ethics, audit and governance, pensions committee, pensions investment subcommittee, and waste credit. And waste credit governance committee first. I'm going to read out, this has been agreed with the group leaders as to how we're going to do this. Nominations that have been made by agreement between the conservative group, the green and independent alliance group, the liberal Democrats and labor group. We will then ask for a vote, which will be for voting for those, against those, or abstaining. So I will go through each of those committees and say who the nominations are. So for planning and regulatory committee, the nominations for chair are Linda Robinson and the vice chair, Martin Allen. For standards and ethics committee, I should be saying councillor. The chair would be councillor Sam Evans and the vice chair, Adam Kent. For audit and governance committee, the chair nomination is councillor Dan Birch, the vice chair Jabba Riaz. For pensions committee, the chair councillor Adrian Hardman, the vice chair councillor Matt Jenkins. For pensions investment subcommittee, the chair councillor Adrian Hardman, the vice chair councillor Matt Jenkins. For waste credit governance committee, the chair councillor Tor Pingree and the vice chair Tony Miller. We will now do, with the chair's discretion, we will now ask for votes for, by a show of hands, for those nominations. And with the chair's discretion, I shall continue and ask for votes against. Thank you. So the votes were 30 in favour and 26 against. On that basis, we agreed with the group leaders that, given that the balance of 30 in the chamber is for those appointments, those appointments will now be carried. In relation to the scrutiny panels, which includes the overarching overview scrutiny performance board, I shall now read out the nominations, which are a combination of proposals put forward by the Conservative, Green and Independent Alliance, Liberal Democrats and Labour Group. So I'm going to read out the nominations for these panels, which it gets confusing. So the chairs and the vice chairs and the lead member community safety, they form the committee for OSPB, which has to be a group of 14, which has to be politically balanced because the motion was carried. Therefore, it's easy if I just read these out as to how there would be for OSPB. So the nominations are as follows. For the overall chair for OSPB, the nomination is Tom Wells, Councillor Tom Wells. I should say that is across all groups. The nomination for the chair of children and families is Councillor Natalie McVeigh. So for political balance, those are the two seats on OSPB for Green and Independence Alliance. The chair for the Health and Overview Scrutiny Committee would be Councillor Karen May in nomination. For the chair of Corporate and Community Scrutiny, Councillor Seb James. And for the chair of the Economy Scrutiny Panel would be Councillor Marcus Hart. Those are three Conservative councillors, therefore making their proposal to have the three seats on OSPB. The chair for Adult Care and Wellbeing Scrutiny, Councillor Mel Alcott. And the chair of Scrutiny for Environment Scrutiny, Councillor Josh Robinson, being the two political balance proposals for the Lib Dem group. And the proposal for the lead member, who also has a seat on the panel for community safety, is Councillor Richard Udall, Labour group being entitled to one seat on a political balance of a committee size of 14. We've taken that into account, the proposals for vice chairs for committees, which are from the reform group, as they are entitled to six seats on the OSPB. There is no vice chair nominations for Health and Overview Scrutiny Committee, as that is a district councillor nomination. So the vice chair for OSPB is Councillor Roger Bennett. The vice chair for the Adult Care and Wellbeing is Councillor Jenny Shaw, the vice chair for Children and Families Scrutiny, Councillor Richard Tudge, the vice chair for Corporate and Communities Scrutiny, Councillor Sam Barstow, the vice chair for Economy Scrutiny, Councillor Dave Edmonds, and the vice chair for Environment Scrutiny, Councillor Matt Jones. Based on that, it's proposed now that we now do a vote for or against those nominations. It's proposed that is on block, so if you're voting for, you're voting for all of those nominations. May I now seek nomination, the vote by show of hands for those appointments to the scrutin panels, including OSPB. Votes against. There are none. And those votes for abstaining. On that basis, we have 34 those nominations. There were no one voting against, and there were 26 abstentions. Therefore, the nominations as read out are carried. So I'm now going to hand back to the chair to take over for about the council meeting dates. Thank you. I will invite the leader of the council to introduce the report and move the recommendations. Thank you. Thank you. I move recommendation in paragraph 26 as set out of the report. Thank you. My second. Thank you very much. Okay, we're now on to Agenda Item 9, which is Report of the Cabinet Decisions Taken. This report deals with the decisions already taken by the Cabinet and is on pages 9 and 10 in the main agenda and is purely for noting on this occasion. You're noted, happy with that. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Right, so we're now moving on to a notice of motion. We have one more motion to do and I'm going to call on the proposal of the motion to put the motion. Thank you. The issue we've had is I've been during this meeting emailed amendments to the motions, which I, as you can see, it's been quite busy. I haven't had a chance to look at. So again, with the chairman's discretion, I'm literally only going to need 10 minutes just to have a quick look at the wording to check that this is all okay and then we can arrange for it to be handed out, but I just need that opportunity to look at them first. So with your discretion, adjournment for 10 minutes. Thank you. I'm going to start. Let Adam get back to his seat. Okay, we're now on the second motion. So notice of motion had been received by the Assistant Director for Legal and Governance. We've ordered out with notice of motion two. Members are reminded that a maximum of 90 minutes would be set aside. We've already used approximately 30 minutes. We have 60 minutes left. The motion that has been put forward has actually already been amended by the Gaia group and as such, I propose that we move forward with that amendment as we've got printed here now rather than debating an amendment on the original motion. So this will become a substantive motion that we will now be discussing and debating. Is that agreed with everybody? Great, thank you. Right, so I will now call for the proposal of the motion. Councillor Cross to put the motion. Thank you. Thank you, Chair, and congratulations on your appointment. Members, thank you all for receiving this motion which we have amended. There's been a lot of work for this to align with officer advice and recent developments including the last 10 minutes. So there is one variation to the printed paper that you have in front of you which is easy to do verbally such that this motion calls for and then strike out an urgent hostage report to Cabinet before 26th June so that it reads this motion calls for some of the car parks at County Hall to be opened up immediately dot, dot, dot, dot, dot. We also, in closing, ask for the relevant CMR and all members to be kept updated of the situation because I know that a lot of you have expressed interest in this topic. So, as you may or may not be aware, traffic congestion at Worcestershire Royal Hospital has been dire for far too long and public sentiment is that Worcestershire County Council has done little to help improve it. for well over two years now nearly every day it takes staff, patients and visitors well over an hour to exit the hospital car parks and delays of 90 minutes are commonplace in the afternoon peak times. So the impact of this wheelchair users who rely on taxis to get to the appointment cannot get to the hospital and attend the appointments because the taxi drivers don't want to be stuck for ages trying to leave the car park. Discharge of newly born babies has had to be scheduled to avoid peak congestion times because getting stuck in the congestion is a risk to their safety. So this impacts hospital efficiency. Patients are missing appointments because they could not find a parking space and this situation calls for immediate action. Five minutes traffic-free walk away the situation at County Hall could hardly be any more different. So the closure of County Hall in June 2024 due to leger and the rack crumbling concrete means that most of the parking spaces there remain empty whilst the hospital site is gridlocked. And nearly a year ago senior county officers advised me there were no legal or logistical barriers to opening up County Hall car parks for hospital and physical parking that it was a political decision however the political leader at that time was not amenable to the suggestion. In February of this year Councillor Katie Collier of Leopard Hill Ward submitted a petition to this former council on this topic and that petition was signed by nearly 2,000 residents within a short period of time. So there's been talk about a park and ride scheme for hospital staff visitors and patients. That talk's been going on for months but still nothing in place. Better bus services of course a park and ride scheme and more barrel bike bays in the area would help so significantly. A new multi-storey car park at the hospital has been granted to outline planning consent but this will take over a year to be built. We need an end now to the congestion that wastes hours of people's time costs the local economy worsens local air pollution and puts pressure on overstretched ambulance and hospital services. Allowing Worcestershire County Council's empty car parks some of them to be used temporarily for hospital overspill parking could reduce congestion on the hospital site almost immediately whilst the longer term solutions are put in place. Now this motion very carefully centres on the principle of allowing temporary hospital overspill parking at County Hall for hospital workers. Details will of course need to be worked through to prevent adverse impact on County workers and visitors or on local residents who are concerned about County Hall's roads being used as a rat run by drivers seeking a shortcut. So this is a short term measure which can almost instantly alleviate the daily misery of traffic congestion that is suffered at the hospital site. More barrel bike bays near County Hall will help boost active travel which reduces road congestion and provides public health benefit. So this motion provides an opportunity for us new County Council members to show that we do care for residents, hospital staff and our local economy and I urge you all to support this motion. Thank you. Thank you Councillor Cross. I'd like to ask a seconder please to speak. Councillor Pingray. Yeah I will formally second this motion and present my right to speak. Thank you. Thank you. I'm now going to ask the council if this is to be dealt with today. All agree? Thank you. Do I have any speakers on this motion? Councillor Pingray. Thank you very much indeed Mr Chairman and I speak on behalf of the Conservative group and I'm very grateful to see the wording of the amended motion because the Conservative group very much support the principle of using what are now deemed surplus at our car parks at County Hall. I think it's a little unfortunate to suggest that nothing has been done and that the previous leader was not open to the suggestion of utilising car parks that would be redundant but of course it's only in the last couple of months where the previous administration made the formal decision to make County Hall surplus to requirements and that the building would not be repaired as a result of the rack issue and indeed in the previous administration when I was a cabinet member for corporate services I was working very much behind the scenes with the proper officers to secure a lease with the acute trust on what's called car park one which is the upper car park closest to the hospital for the acute trust to allow their staff to utilise that car park which of course would free more space at the actual hospital site itself and I understand that those terms have been agreed with so it's not that nothing has happened and it's not that nothing will happen very shortly and I absolutely agree with the sentiment with the proper legal measures in place because of course no doubt the new administration will have their own ideas on the use of the site and indeed members who are not in the administration will have their own ideas and it's very important that if a decision is to be made in the near future on the county hall site that the hands of this council are not bound and importantly and most fundamentally of all there has to be value for the taxpayers and it's really important that in any measures that are taking place to support our communities that it doesn't actually cost the Worcestershire taxpayer any money or this authority any resource in order to deliver what absolutely I'm sure everybody in this chamber would agree with if there's underutilised space that we can assist the staff the visitors and our wider community to access the acute site why wouldn't we? And finally Mr Chairman just before I finish I'm sure the mover when they sum up on behalf of this notice of motion will be able to give this council and certainly the Conservative group who are minded to support this notice of motion the assurance that it will be at no cost to the public purse or certainly the Worcestershire County Council Thank you I've now got a call for Councillor Shaw Thank you Chair actually Councillor Hart has addressed some of my concerns in principle I agree with the use of the car park for overspill for the hospital I am greatly worried that the revenue stroke cost benefit won't go in our favour on such a short term project and an already stretched council that is something we can't allow to happen that we really must make sure it doesn't come at a cost Thank you Thank you I've now got Councillor Alcott Chair thank you and good afternoon council and welcome to familiar faces and new ones I'm a little surprised that this motion is still on the table as it was back in Christmas of last year I did write to the then leader Councillor Simon Geraghty I issued an open letter which was in the Western News and went to Simon requesting that we do use the car park for the benefit of the hospital and my understanding now is that that is in place that an agreement is being formulated and that the council will be able to facilitate some of the NHS's car parking needs with their staff and that it will be able to generate income from it so on that basis I'm happy to support the motion I think in an ideal world I would have liked to have put in an amendment but my understanding is that this work is already being undertaken so I think we could have possibly saved council's time here today by not having a motion but I still very much support the principle of it and which will be backed up by my letter in the Western News and I would like to thank the former leader Councillor Simon Geraghty to be fair for moving forward on this and all the officers for their time on it so far thank you I now call Councillor Riaz Thank you Mr Chairman I fully support this motion I mean there is obviously a cost to this as members have highlighted but however what we need to weigh in mind is the cost and the saving in journey times the cost in smelly exhaust fumes that have been clobbing up people's lungs the cost in public health in terms of the stress and the mental health that people kind of suffer as a result of this and if you put that together then any cost that is going to be incurred to this council far outweighs sorry doesn't outweigh the cost to the overall health benefits that this will bring our residents in Worcester that neighbour this particular ward in Nunri councillors Ali Elaine Wilmore and Agar have been on about the impact that it has on local residents in terms of clogging up streets with neighbourly disputes on a daily basis where driveways are being blocked because the staff can't block properly and we don't we need to diffuse that situation and this is the perfect solution in order for us to diffuse those situations that we can easily do however I do have a caveat there are residents in Specialty Road as a result of the significant amount of usage from Nunri Wood High School the sports centre and the college that are experiencing daily, daily misery with the amount of traffic that is being used because the access to County Hall is now open and accessible and people are using that as a wrap run as Councillor Jenkins has said as Councillor Cross has said earlier so we just need to add caution how we manage this and what the expectation is to the general public but in terms this is an absolute move that is absolutely needed that will make the whole cities and the whole counties those that are users of that hospital extremely better much, much better now move on to Councillor Basto in the interest of transparency I do have a family member who works at the hospital however speaking with people I do know that parking is a major issue there especially if you are working a late shift you can't find a parking space and drive around for ages and having the overflow parking would be most welcome and would make perfect common sense thank you thank you very much I now call on Councillor Amos thank you Chair I personally have a lot of sympathy with this motion the public expect a bit of common sense from politicians on this there are two public bodies involved the NHS and the County Council who should be working together to come up with a sensible solution we have a huge hospital a few hundred yards away with a desperate shortage of parking and it's been like that for many years and right next door the County Council has massive unused car parking provision with weeds growing all over it and thanks to the last Conservative administration Worcestershire County Council is now bankrupt literally and a County Council complex that has been disgracefully left derelict and unused after a 20-year failure to maintain and look after the site furthermore this motion has made it perfectly clear and I'm very pleased to see this that we are only talking about an in-principle decision a detailed report is going to be drawn up to look into all the aspects the practicalities and the feasibility of using the site for parking and so if for some reason it proves not to be possible insurance legal reasons or whatever then at least we will have shown the public that we've tried to do something constructive with this site so Mr Chairman this issue has been going on for over one and a half years now thanks to the neglect by the last failed Conservative administration which kept blocking this proposal kept blocking this proposal showing no interest in trying to resolve the very serious parking shortage at our hospital and left the whole county council complex derelict and in a serious state of decay so in conclusion Mr Chairman let's go with this motion as a sensible attempt to solve a problem and get the two major public organisations working together for the common good of the public and isn't it delightful to see that the Conservatives have done a U-turn on this and isn't it amazing what losing 33 of your seats can do to change the way you think thank you councillor Amos I now call on councillor Josh Robinson thank you chair and as a person speaking congratulations on your elevation and congratulations to councillor Dromund who will lead this council through what will be troubled times so best of luck I would like to thank the Guile Group for bringing this forward I'd also like to thank councillor Mel Alcott who I know has been trying to campaign on this I think it's a really important motion it sounds like we've got some good cross party support on it we all talk about the problems that we have down here I have had problems as well down here when the birth of my second child we had to go to a pre-op meeting we left well in time from the north in Bronzegrove down to Worcester and yet got stuck at the first roundabout and after about 20 minutes of waiting my wife got out went to the appointment came out and I just got through the barrier which was a fun payment but yes I think it's really important that we look into this and try and find a real solution for people not only in Worcester but across Worcestershire Thank you I will now call on Councillor Paul Bennett Yes thanks even the new A&E section has got terrible congestion and that wasn't exactly planned that long ago I happen to be unfortunately a frequent visitor there and it is absolutely unacceptable that people cannot park when they have emergency medical need and if staff and other people that can park somewhere else can be found somewhere it is vital it might even save the odd life so this is not something minor it's not just about cost it is actually about something that's really really important and I've seen myself on a number of occasions people not being able to park at A&E and that I think is just ridiculous at this stage of our development of medical services in Worcestershire thank you and I'll call on Councillor Kent thank you very much chair and thank you for all the speakers it's been an interesting debate I think there is some sort of conciliatory approach really to what we're trying to resolve and solve but I would like to remind council that some of the members speaking so passionately were up until very recently a big part of the conservative administration and it is indeed unfortunate that it goes to that particular level but I as group leader of the conservatives wholly supportive of this I'd like to thank the movers of the motion for bringing it and for being conscious of the fact of the financial situation of the county council and everything else and as my esteemed councillor Hart has put forward we will definitely be supporting the motion Nathan McPay yeah thank you unfortunately in recent days my father had to be rushed in to hospital and my mum and dad live between Worcester and Hereford the ambulance took my dad to Hereford and I was really relieved about that one of the issues sadly being the parking situation I'm not saying it's perfect at Hereford Hospital but you have other options and I think at Worcester this is the ideal other option for the reasons already stated I would have really worried about my mum being able to park to visit my dad myself being able to park to visit my dad and he's been very seriously ill so he needed the company so just to say from a personal perspective and on behalf of all residents this is an ideal solution and I'm fully supportive thank you great thank you are there any other speakers who'd like to talk on this promotion in that case I'm going to ask Councillor Pingree if she would like to speak she reserved her right to speak earlier thank you yeah thank you chair there's not a lot to say as far as I can see it's a very obvious choice that we should make the residents want it the hospital want it and based clearly on where we're all sat right now we're not using it so let's actually open up the principle of allowing this temporary car parking at county hall obviously we can look into or officers can look further into the financial benefits for the council and ensure that that takes place but let's open up the principle of it definitely thanks thank you and I call on Katzakos to sum up before we move to above thank you everyone for your really supportive words this really does seem to be a slam dunk no-brainer proposal which can offer financial benefit for our council and for our local economy and really relieved to hear that work has been going on in the past to improve the situation I appreciate being told about this I think that could have been good communications to have had in past months but that's all water under the bridge going forward yeah working with officers to ensure no cost to council or taxpayers obviously significant benefit public health as well this motion demonstrates our commitment to solving this problem so thank you all for your encouragement okay so on that basis now we will move to the vote if you please show your hands all those in favour okay thank you that's a clear majority thank you so we're now on agenda item 11 please turn to it's question time please turn to pages 15 to 16 in the main agenda pack for question time there are five questions in all the constitution sets aside 30 minutes for formal question time it has been agreed with group leaders that answers will not be provided by cabinet members at today's meeting but will be sent to those members who have asked a question all questions are on the council's website and written answers will be circulated to all members okay so first question please that would be me chair thank you good morning again council I'm sorry we're not going to have any supplementary questions see mine was quite a simple question really so would the cabinet member of the responsibility agree that the highways department should be helpful ensuring the parish council projects are not hindered and would you agree to a meeting with myself and Kempsey parish council thank you thank you councillor Allen absolutely I agree to a meeting with yourself and parish council beyond that I'd like to withhold any further answer having been in the post for three hours thank you so perhaps we can speak afterwards thank you but that's really appreciated the rest of the questions will be there won't be answers back because it's just to protect you as new cabinet members you haven't had a chance to prepare so in your defence really it will be answers after this but I really appreciate that first one thank you okay so we'll move on to the second question thank you chair with the rapidly increasing number of floods in Worcestershire largely caused by climate change can a cabinet member for environment or whoever confirm that this council will continue to invest in measures to combat climate change thank you so I'm not sure we don't actually require an answer to this point it's all going to be written so we'll move on to the third question please thank you chair yeah this is a question on the minds of lots of residents of St. Clement which is why is the number 31 bus service through Worcester so poor thank you we'll now move on to question number five you're determined to I thought we were on the same side okay would the cabinet member with the responsibility for flooding explain why the planned public meeting in seven set before the 7th of May was not attended by county council officers and had to be cancelled and again hopefully you will speak to me afterwards and perhaps we can set a new date for this council to face the public thank you thank you we're now moving on to question five thank you chair again a question actually from people across Worcestershire those with children and those who are children which is questioning why there's been a reduction to the funding of free school meals thank you okay so we're now moving on to agenda item number 12a please this is reports of committees audit and governance committee summary of decisions taken please turn to pages 17 to 24 with a report of the audit and governance committee and this is purely for noting on this occasion is that agreed by everybody agreed thank you very much agenda item 12b this is reports of committees pensions committee summary of decisions taken please turn to pages 25 to 30 of the report of the pensions committee and again this is purely for noting on this particular occasion everyone content for that agreed thank you agenda item 12c this report committees planning and regulatory committees please turn to pages 31 to 32 the report of the planning and regulatory committee which again is purely for noting on this occasion we're content with that agree thank you so this brings us happy points to the meeting we are now at the end of the meeting thank you all very much for attending today and I'm going to officially close the meeting thank you see you next time thank you just just to remind just to remind all councillors it's photo time so please make your way for the thank you